Transgender, Transsexuelle, Störungen der Geschlechtsidentität

Geschrieben von: (partly) Wendy Moelker, psychologist in charge of
Emergis, Goes, the Netherlands. This article was mainly
copied from Wikipedia, and is
available under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License (see Copyrights
for details). The text has been approved by the Web4Health
medical experts. Übersetzt von Karin Austen.

Some spell the term
transexual with one
s in order to reduce the association of their identity
with psychiatry and medicine.

Terminology and concepts, compared to transgender

Transgender is often used as a
euphemistic synonym for transsexual people by some. One
set of reasoning for this is that it removes the conceptual
image "sex" in "transsexual" that implies transsexuality is
sexually motivated, which it is not. This usage is
problematic because it can cause transgender people who do
not identify as transsexual to be confused with them. It
also seems to remove the issue of social presentation
(gender, in its social sense) from the question, even
though gender role and presentation is an important part of
the equation.

Furthermore, many transsexuals reject the term
"transgender" as an identification for themselves, either
as a synonym or as an umbrella term. They advance a number
of arguments for this. One argument is that the use of the
umbrella term inaccurately subsumes them and causes their
identity, history, and existence to be marginalized.
Another is that they perceive the term to be the breaking
down of gender barriers, whereas transsexual people
themselves usually identify as men or as women -- just not
as they were assigned at birth. A third occasionally
mentioned is that they did not
change gender at any point -- they have always had their
gender (identity), and the
difficulty is their
sex
(anatomy), which they desire to change. However, others
point out that transsexual people do change their
gender role at some point, and that most
non-transsexual transgender people always had their gender
identity, too.

A more problematic dispute with the use of the term
"transsexual" is that it refers to processes of chemical
and/or anatomical modification that do not actually render
an individual reproductively viable after transition
processes, nor change sex chromosomes. Particularly,
criticism of transsexual women by some feminists includes
the contention that their transition is cosmetic rather
than fundamental, and they are thus not "really" changing
their sex at all (thus the use of transgender).
These critics claim that the presumption of reproductive
viability is what distinguishes "women" from "men". This
argument is used to discount the rights of identification
and association with other women that transsexual women
might claim. However, many arguments that link whether
someone is a "woman" or a "man" based on reproductive
capability, or
chromosomes, fall apart when
considering non-transsexual people who are
infertile or non-transsexual men or women who have a
chromosomal configuration different from other men and
women in the general population.

Probably many of these problems are associated with the
history of the term "transgender" and its other definitions;
see above.

To respect the identity of those transsexual people who do
not identify as transgender, the constructions
trans,
trans*, or
transgender and transsexual sometimes are used to
describe all transpeople.

Further, many people who this article would define as
transgender reject the term altogether, along with other
related terms (transsexual, crossgender, etc.). This is most
commonly seen with people who have changed sex but who do
not define themselves as transsexual. A common statement is
that a transsexual is someone who is undergoing a change
from one sex to another; someone who has already done so is
simply a "man" or a "woman". This brings up issues of the
extent to which someone who is not a part of a group may
define it, also seen in the case of, for example,
"men who have sex with men"
(MSMs), who do not see themselves as
homosexual but could still be defined as such.

Cross-dressing

A person who is
cross-dressing is any person who, for any reason, wears
the clothing of a gender other than that to which they were
assigned at birth. Cross-dressers may have no desire or
intention of adopting other behaviours or practices common
to that gender, and particularly does (currently) not wish
to undergo medical procedures to facilitate physical
changes. Contrary to common belief, most male-bodied
cross-dressers prefer female partners.

Drag involves wearing highly exaggerated and outrageous
costumes or imitating movie and music stars of the opposite
sex. It is a form of
performing art practiced by
drag queens and
drag kings. Drag is often found in a
gay or
lesbian context. The term "drag king" can also apply to
people from the female-to-male side of the transgender
spectrum who do not see themselves as exclusively male
identified, therefore covering a much wider ground than a
"drag queen".

Transvestic fetishism is a term used in the medical
community to refer to one who has a
fetish for wearing the clothing of the opposite gender.
This is considered a derogatory term by some, as it implies
a hierarchy of value in which the sexual element of
transgender behaviour is of low social value. Many reject
the term "transvestite" for this reason, preferring
cross-dresser instead. It is often difficult to distinguish
between fetishism that happens to have female clothing as
an object and transgender behaviour that includes sexual
play. Some people feel that transvestic fetishism does not
count as cross-dressing.

Other

"Transgender" is also used to describe behaviour or
feelings that cannot be categorized into these older
sub-categories, for example, people living in a gender role
that is different from the one they were assigned at birth,
but who do not wish to undergo any or all of the available
medical options, or people who do not wish to identify
themselves as "transsexuals", "men" or "women", and
consider that they fall between genders, or transcend
gender.

Some people who present as female, but with
male genitalia may have been born
intersexual but may also be transsexual or transgender, who do
transition
(taking
oestrogens and/or other methods) to achieve some
desired secondary sex characteristics, but not
sexual reassignment
surgery. Sometimes these individuals are referred to as
ladyboy or
shemale
(compare there), but these terms are considered derogatory
by many, including most transgender or transsexual people
not working in the sex industry.

Other Issues

(Trans-)gender identity is different from, though related to,
sexual orientation. Sexual
orientations among transgender people vary just as much as
they do among cisgender people. Although few studies have
been done, transgender groups almost always report that
their members are more likely to be attracted to those with
the same
gender identity, compared to
the population as a whole; that is, transwomen are more
likely to be attracted to other women, and transmen are
more likely to be attracted to other men. Many transgender
people who are attracted to others of the same gender will
identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

Note that in the professional literature, "homosexual" and
"heterosexual" are very often used respective to
clients' birth sex, instead of their desired sex.
Transgender people may feel misunderstood by caregivers
because of this practice; it is also quite confusing when a
relationship that is considered gay or lesbian by both
partners is labeled
heterosexual, or a relationship that consists, as
far as the partners are concerned, of a man and a women is
labeled
homosexual. The existence of transgender people and
their sexual relationships points to certain inadequacies
of language.

Many Western societies today have some sort of procedure
whereby an individual can change their name, sometimes also
their legal gender, to reflect their
gender identity; see
Legal aspects of
transsexualism. Medical procedures for transgender
people are also available in most Western and many
non-Western countries. However, because gender roles are an
important part of many cultures, those engaged in strong
challenges to the prevalence of these roles, such as many
transgender people, often have to face considerable
prejudice.

Transgender in non-Western cultures

This article describes primarily Western modes of
transgenderism. Many other cultures have or have had
similar phenomena:

The so-called
berdache in many
Native American groups is recognized as a separate
gender, a woman-living-man, not as a man who wants to be a
woman. The term "berdache" is a misnomer, however, as no
Native American group actually used the term; different
ethnic groups had different names for the role, such as the
winkte. The husband of such a person is not viewed as
being gender-different themself, but as a normal male. In
some societies there is a corresponding gender for
man-living-women (
amazons).

In
Thai culture, there is the
kathoey, who is very similar to the
English definition of transgender, but is sometimes
broader, including effiminate gay males moreso than
"transgender" does.

South Asian cultures have
hijra, usually genetic males who have been castrated
and live as women.

Gender identity disorder

Transgender and transsexualism are only regarded as a
disorder if they make a person unhappy and unsatisfied, or
causes problems in relations to other people. If they are
happy with it, and it causes no problem, it is a
personality trait, but not a disorder.

Persons with a gender identity disorder have had strong
feelings since childhood that they were born in the wrong
body. They want to belong to the opposite sex, e.g. they
want to be a woman instead of a man and vice versa. This
can be seen in children when they keep on indicating that
they want to belong to the opposite sex, want to wear
clothes of the opposite sex and have a strong and
continuous preference for playing the role of the other sex
or pretending to belong to this sex. They also want to play
games and have pastimes of the other sex and preferably
play with pals of the other sex.

Note that transgender need
not
include a wish to have sex playing another sex role
than born with. Note also that some people normally use
their normal gender role, but sometimes wish to try out the
reverse gender role.

In adolescents this disorder is very noticeable by signs
like wishing to belong to the opposite sex, living like
someone of the other sex, being treated as someone of the
other sex or be convinced that he or she has the typical
feelings and reactions of the other sex. Transsexuals are
not transvestites; transvestites are people who every now
and then feel good in the clothes of the other sex, but
don't want to live like this forever.